General Motors has acquired LIDAR technology company Strobe, which will join GM’s Cruise Automation team focused on developing and deploying self-driving vehicles. This follows Ford’s prior investment in major LIDAR manufacturer Velodyne. Google’s Waymo is also said to be manufacturing their own LIDAR devices.

The new US guideline on autonomous vehicle is now much thinner (from 200 to 35 pages) and gives the OEMs exactly what they wanted. They are now entirely voluntary, including on safety. The ethics decision issue is also gone from the text. This should accelerate AV production further in the US, leaving Europe trailing … but at what cost?

Audi has launched the most advanced self-driving car available on the roads, in spite of warnings from across the industry that a system that allows owners to take their eyes off the road for prolonged periods of time is fundamentally unsafe. The Volkswagen-owned brand unveiled its new flagship A8 saloon on Tuesday, a vehicle that will spearhead the company’s attempts to reclaim the technological lead over arch rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The most eye-catching feature of the car allows drivers to sit back and watch television while the vehicle drives itself at speeds of up to 60km per hour in heavy traffic.

This purports to be the first mass production, truly level 3 car. In our Autonomous Vehicle Global Study we have studied, at length, the problems with driver re-engagement and the barriers this may place on level 3 technology. At this stage, it is unclear how Audi plans to handle the re-engagement challenge.

Waberer’s International predict wave of consolidation across the European CRT industry and declares itself “prepared for the sift to driverless technology” following announcement of IPO and autonomous partnership with Volvo Group.

Germany passes legislation to enable autonomous vehicles The German government just legalised autonomous cars, but not driverless cars. A driver must be able to take back control at any time. Also it gave the OEM the liability but only if the driver did not re-engage and demand a black box to record data about the nature of the driving.

19-April-17Baidu expected to release a free OS for autonomous Cars
Like Android released in 2008 and then became the most popular smartphone OS, Baidu is releasing the OS for free but some mapping and machine-learning services will be accessible through an API controlled by Baidu.

06-Jan-17Audi Is Using Nvidia Tech to Bring Self-Driving Cars to Market by 2020German automaker Audi (AUDVF, -0.48%) will use U.S. chipmaker Nvidia’s (NVDA, -1.05%) artificial intelligence computing platform to bring autonomous vehicles to the road by 2020, the companies announced Wednesday night at CES, the annual consumer electronics show in Las Vegas.

13-Dec-16Mobileye installs anti-crash tech on NYC carsTogether with insurer Atlas Financial Holdings, Inc., Mobileye said, it has equipped thousands of New York City-based rideshare vehicles, such as those available through popular apps including Uber and Lyft, with advanced collision avoidance systems that aim to prevent accidents.

6-Dec-16Pennsylvania Unveils Guidelines for Autonomous VehiclesPennDot have put forward recommendations for legislation to go forward to allow control over autonomous testing to be handed to the PenDott. The aim of this is to allow and encourage manufacturers to test their autonomous vehicles in Pennsylvania, with a focus on innovation around driverless vehicles. Currently policy for HAV only applies to vehicles of which control can be taken by a driver at any time.

5-Dec-16Cadillac is out of the HAV raceSupercruise will be a big part of GM’s strategy towards automation and the tech launch has been delayed because of issue of “integration”. Cadillac will have super cruise but the company has declared itself out of the race on HAV – stating it was not in their strategy or in their customer segment’s interest. Finally a company that states it won’t follow the rush! Correction: Cadillac showed off supercruise in April 2017

5-Dec-16Apple reveals plans for self driving carAlso mentioned in the letter is Apple’s agreement with the standards that companies should share de-identified scenario and dynamics data from crashes and near misses, including time-series of vehicle kinematics and roadway and object characteristics.

Apple has written a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asking for the government to help “new entrants” to the vehicle market to have “the same opportunity” that “established manufacturers have when it comes to testing on public roads. By this, Apple is requesting for the NHTSA to expedite the exemptions requests needed to test vehicles. Congress recently enacted provision in the FAST (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) Act for established manufacturers to test on public roads without needing exemptions in the FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards). Apple rogue that this should be extended to new entrants.

23-Sep-16Uber rival Grab partners with driverless car firm in SingaporeGrab and nuTonomy have reached an agreement to allow riders to book a ride using an autonomous vehicle in Singapore. nuTonomy hopes to have 100 commercially available AVs by 2018 and a dozen by the end of 2016. At first, an engineer will also be present in the car to monitor the environment and take over the driving task if the ride takes the vehicle outside the one-north district.

21-Sep-16Germany to create world’s first highway code for driverless carsThree things are laid out:1) A car will always opt for property damage over personal injury
2) An AV system will never distinguish between humans based on categories such as age or race
3) If human removes hands from steering wheel, the car manufacturer is liable

06-Sep-16Sweden’s Volvo, Autolive hook up in driverless-car raceThe two companies are joining forces to develop a software for the autonomous vehicle market. First assistance systems are expected to be available for sale by 2019 and automated driving technology by 2021. Auto-live has traditionally been a supplier of safety belts and air bags, but is growing its product lines ranging from camera, sensors, radars, mapping, and other assistance systems.

02-Sep-16France rolls out ‘world’s first’ driverless busesTwo electric vehicles will be shuttling a maximum of 15 passengers during a test trial of one year in Lyon, France. The buses have a top speed of 20km/hr and will be making 10 stops. Buses are manufactured by Navya, prototypes were tested in 2013 and trial begins in 2015 (about 2-3 years from prototype to road testing).

01-Sep-16Baidu and Nvidia team up to work on artificial intelligence for self driving carTitle tells most of the story. Another interesting point is that earlier this week, Baidu received approval from the California Department of Motor Vehicle to start testing autonomous vehicles in public roads.

1st September, 2016French-made Driverless bus trial in South Perth an Australian firstThe vehicle is considered level four. It can carry 11 passengers and travel at up to 45km per hour, although its average speed will be 25kph. It will travel down a pre-programmed route on the foreshore, but it has the ability to detect other vehicles and read traffic lights.

1st September, 2016Driverless vehicle on trial in Downtown DubaiThe strategy aims at switching 25 per cent of total mobility in Dubai to driverless journeys using various transit means by 2030. Capable of moving at a speed of up to 40km/h, EZ10 cruises at 25km/h and is ideal in pedestrian areas and dedicated cycle lanes. The vehicle is also special needs-friendly, with a movable ramp allowing access to wheelchair-bound passengers.

31-Aug-16Tesla starts the new InsureMyTesla plans in Australia and Hong Kong, hinting towards entering into the industryTesla’s insurance programs will be underwritten by AXA in Hong Kong and QBE in Australia. Tesla is getting more involved because owners have been paying too much for insurance due to insurers incorrectly listing the Model S’s trim levels. Insurers are also not yet able to properly insure cars that receive software updates. The insurance is in the pilot stage only.

30-Aug-16Drive.ai uses deep learning to teach self-driving cars and to give them a voiceDrive.ai is working on a platform that will allow cars to communicate more effectively with pedestrians outside of the car.

29-Aug-16Russia’s search giant, Yandex, is making a self-driving shuttle busIt’s partnering with Daimler, truck maker Kamaz and government-backed researchers at NAMI on an autonomous shuttle bus that could carry up to 12 people and travel about 124 miles on a charge. Yandex is contributing its experiences with artificial intelligence, computer vision and voice recognition, and it’ll even be central to the interface — you’ll use a Yandex-linked mobile app to pinpoint your destination.

Discusses the technology and viability of GNSS positioning systems that could help cars stay in lanes even in harsh weather conditions. Accuracy can be up to the centimetre. Very technical writing – could be useful during potential during CNES project.

Singapore has claimed a head-start in the global race to deploy self-driving cars with the launch the world’s first public trial of a robe-taxi service. The trial allows selected members of the public to use a smartphone app to hail a free ride in autonomous cars operated by autonomy. The passengers, traveling either in a specially configured Renault Zoe or Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric vehicle, will be accompanied by one of the company’s engineers, who can take control of the vehicle if necessary.

A new technology partnership between top auto suppliers Mobileye and Delphi automotivee could pull ahead production of self-driving cars to late 2019. They plan to begin a turn-key system for self-driving cars early next year.

BMW announced its latest plans to build cars in the preparation for launching its first fully autonomous vehicles in China in 2021. BMW will work with technology giants Intel and Isreali manufacturer Mobileye to make iNext a fully autonomous vehicle.

Uber’s autopilot car will hit the road soon, and will roll out self-driving taxi services in the US by the end of the month

– Velodyne LiDAR has accept a joint venture investment of $150 million (50/50) by Baidu and Ford. This investment will help Velodyne LiDAR improve the design and performance as well as to reduce the cost of its lidar products.

– On August 18, Uber has announced the acquisition of autonomous truck start-up company Otto. Getting a share of the freight revenues, Uber will obtain a very predictable source of revenues.

– Uber will roll out the self-driving Uber Taxi service in the US by the end of the month. Starting from later this month, Uber will allow consumers to hail a self-driving taxi in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania using the Uber app. These self-driving taxis are a modified version of Volvo XC90 SUV, equipped with dozens of sensors and cameras, Lidar and GPS signal receiver.

Delphi announced that it will need to implement on-demand autopilot taxi services, with three-year polio scheme in Singapore. With first year dedicated to related construction, Delphi will roll out vehicle road test on the second year. Delphi hopes to offer services including communication systems for autonomous vehicles and control systems, transportation and cloud services – a wholistic ecosystem.

China issued nationwide ride-hailing regulations, making it the largest country to formally legalise the sector at a national level. Provisions in the previous draft – forcing Uber and Didi to operate like traditional taxi companies – have been struck from the final version, although local governments are allowed to set minimum and maximum fare prices.

Nissan’s new Serena ProPILOT technology makes autonomous drive first for Japanese automakers

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. announced today that the new Serena, scheduled to go on sale in Japan in late August, will come equipped with the company’s ProPILOT autonomous drive technology, offering convenience and peace of mind during highway mobility. ProPILOT is a revolutionary autonomous drive technology designed for highway use in single-lane traffic. ProPILOT will be introduced into other vehicles, including the Qashqai in Europe in 2017. There are also plans for the technology to be introduced in the U.S. and China markets.

Mobileye will stop providing technical support on ADAS Autopilot to Tesla

Mobileye wants to be more involved with how its technology is deployed and Tesla refused to grant this permission. Mobileye is setting its sights more on fully autonomous vehicles in order to avoid the complications with driver handoff. EyeQ4 will improve on angle collision situations.

Mobileye will not extend the contract with Tesla beyond EyeQ3 product. Mobileye will continue the support and maintain of the current Autopilot with Tesla, including safety function upgrades, but this will not include hardware upgrades. Mobileye will introduce EyeQ4 in 2018.

Synopsis announced a new generation of Automatic Test Pattern Generation (ATPG) tool TetraMAX II, which has passed the ISO 26262 automative functional safety standard certification. TetraMAX II can test multiple fault models, and at the same time will reduce to a minimum the cost of test samples and test pattern generation time.

Britain launches a consultation to change the highway code in order to allow autonomous cars on the road by 2020. Government is showing initiative to remove regulatory barriers for ADAS and are also looking at changing insurance law.

Traditional chip maker Intel has made new progress in the field of autonomous driving: on 1 July 2016, BMW, Intel and Mobileye announced a partnership, aiming for mass production of autonomous vehicles by 2021.

Aimed at autonomous vehicle, chances of winning for Intel with newly found partnerships

06-Jul-16

Uber plans to monitor driving behaviour like braking, speeding, etc. It will give drivers feedback on their driving behaviours and compare to other Uber drivers in the city. The data will also be used to track driving patterns that can be used for Uber autonomous car ventures. The driving behaviour is not being used specifically for insurance purposes, but shows Uber is finding value in tracking driving behaviour. Could be a step towards UBI.

“Synthia” is an AI program that creates real world situations for computers to learn how to react to the possible dangers of the road. It is being developed at the Computer Vision Centre in Barcelona, Spain.

General Motors will expand its engineering base in Canada, creating 1000 new jobs and investing $10 million in Ontario for the development of autonomous car technology. Article also mentions the GM acquisition of Cruise Automation, a startup that develops autonomous vehicle technology.

Article outlines some of the successes and some of the failures with the S90 ACC feature that can actively keep you entered in the lane. Interestingly, Volvo makes almost all ADAS features standard except blind spot recognition and rear cross traffic alert because it deemed these features “non-essential”.

Interview with representative from Thatcham. Brings some interesting figures: 45% of new cars launched in 2016 have AEB has standard, 5-star safety will no longer be given to vehicles if AEB is not standard. Survey of customers: 70% say safety is an important factor in choosing new car, 82% feel they should not have to pay extra for safety. Highlights issue with dealers not pushing safety features and the problems with a lack of standardisation with the branding of AEB and its level of benefit.

Adrian flux creates a policy for cars with autonomous features. They already include standard coverage for autonomous braking but now add new covers like in cases of failure to install vehicle software updates and security patches, satellite failure affecting navigation, failure of the operating system in the vehicle, loss damage for car hacking.

GM plans to use Mobileye’s technology in the 3 million cars it sells annually. GM is also working with Mobileye on their REM localisation product which will allow GM to collect 100 million miles of data per day in the US. Another example of “land grabbing” on the part of an OEM trying to get its hands on data.

SAIC is China’s largest automotive manufacturer and is partnering with Alibaba to bring the car into the world of the internet. This is viewed as the first step to establish the type of car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure that we will need to deploy fully autonomous vehicles.

Michigan is the first state to allow this on the roads. The legislation made in 2013 that allowed the testing of autonomous vehicles was updated to include cars on public roads and without anyone at the wheel.

Itseez is a computer vision and machine learning startup. Intel has also recently purchased Yogitech, another IoT company. Intel announced in March 2016 that they will be shifting business focus to an IoT, connectivity business model. Look out for intel in the automotive space.

Partnership set to build a LoRaWAN network (long-range wide-area network) the allows objects to communicate with each other over a wireless signal that is more power efficient and cheaper than WiFi, cell networks, and bluetooth. Network will be rolled out throughout South Korea by mid 2016 and is the first country-wide roll-out. Similar network has been tested in Amsterdam (see link)

Samsung and SK Telecom to launch world’s first nationwide network for the Internet of Things in South Korea

25-May-16

NXP reveals its BlueBox technology that is meant to plug into existing cars to give it autonomous functioning. BlueBox is an operating platform that includes sensors and NXP’s semiconductor. The platform is open-sourced and therefore can be customised by car makers – 4 of the largest 5 carmakers are now using BlueBox in their R&D. Power requirement is a bit high, but it is the most integrated system that has been released yet (semiconductor-OS platform-sensors).

Green Hills Software was chosen by DURA to supply the software needed to power its automated control systems. DURA is a Tier 1 supplier to the OEMs and GHS specialises in IoT software and has an operating system called INTEGRITY.

The Modern Transport Bill was announced in the Queen’s speech that extends mandatory cover to include accidents where the driver and a the car are responsible. This is widely seen as the first step towards creating more targeted legislation related to insurance and AVs.

Mobileye agrees to supply autonomous systems to two more undisclosed car makers in 2019. Mobileye is mentioned as having tied to Volkswagen, Tesla, BMW, and General Motors. They have already signed with GM, Volkswagen and Nissan agreements that allow the company have access to vehicle data.

Recap of a conference in California. A few quick mentions: Susan Bonilla and her advocacy in Sacramento, California to allow fully autonomous testing at GoMentum Station (AV testbed). Partnership between GoMentum and EasyMile (manufacturer of AVs developing last mile public transport with AVs).

Mobileye, which specialises in machines learning, data analytics and mapping for ADAS has introduced a platform that can be used to retrofit almost any vehicle on the road for certain ADAS features like forward collision warning, lane departure warning, pedestrian collision warning, etc. It is now available in India.

Intel has plans to move further into automotive industry, already have chips in BMW, Hyundai. Intel purchased YOGITECH (ADAS expert) in April 2016. NVIDIA is Intel’s competitor and has already developed its own autonomous car computer and platform called Drive PX. NVIDIA also announced the launch of a cloud-based supercomputer (GDX-1) that can greatly enhance how many data points an AV can process per second.

Deutsche Bahn is planning on adding a driverless fleet to complete last-mile transportation. The company also has a long term vision of automating their trains and operating them completely from an operations centre.

Cars will be able to steer themselves at 81mph on motorways as the era of driverless cars FINALLY arrives in Britain with new United Nations laws

03-May-16

Looking ahead to Volvo’s AV trials, 100m GBP have already been raised for research into AV technology. Twenty two different research projects were granted a share of the 20m GBP of government funding to develop ICT between cars and urban infrastructure.

Chief scientist at Baidu makes several suggestions for infrastructure considerations before autonomous cars can be adopted on a wide scale. He proposes a solution to counter unemployment as a result AVs – pay citizens to get education and prepare them for new careers managing AVs.